Pink Gin

This is more or less the only piece of advice my father gave me. I’m not sure what might have ensued had I chosen to ignore it. Public drunkenness? Health problems? Foaming at the mouth delirium? It didn’t occur to me to drink gin for many years after receiving this piece of paternal wisdom—he laid it on me when I was about 15 years old—although when I did begin to partake, I always passed up the drugstore brands, no matter how strapped my state.

My English father had descended from a long line of seamen. As a Navy man, his drink of choice was a pink gin. Far from impugning the masculinity of its taster, the barely discernible “pink” in the drink—it always seemed a shade of orange to me—comes from Angostura bitters, an herbal concoction marketed by a German doctor in the late 1800s as a remedy for queasy stomachs. The namesake cocktail came to be when the aromatic bitters—also effective at countering seasickness—was adopted by the Royal Navy and added to the gin they took when the sun was over the yard-arm. Or before.

Dad’s method in making his cocktail was to swirl a few drops of Angostura around an old-fashioned glass, and then shake out any excess. He’d fill the glass with a couple of glugs of gin and a sliver of lemon peel. No ice—of course, no ice. We’re talking of a time (the 1950s) and place (Britain) where domestic refrigeration was rare. Since central heating was just as rare, there really was no problem, as it was every bit as cold inside as it was outside—possibly colder. The bitterness of the herbs, he’d once explained, offsets the oiliness of the gin, making for a palatable—indeed, what I’m told is a really nice—drink. It’s a drink to soothe and fortify, so long as the booze ain’t cheap. Father knows best.–Elizabeth Stewart

LC Delicate American Palate Note

We’re all for authenticity—in most instances, anyways—although we’d rather take our Pink Gin on ice, thank you. One cube is all it needs, just enough to take the edge off those gin-bound botanicals. Blame it on our delicate American palates.

I’d love to see a resurgence of the Pink Gin, a very worthy cocktail. And many years ago I also became a fan of a similar gin drink that was a favorite of the detective character Travis McGee in a series of mystery novels by John D. MacDonald.

McGee’s recipe went thus: Fill a rocks glass with ice cubes, then fill glass with dry sherry. Drain all the sherry out of the glass, leaving the cubes and glass coated. Then fill glass with a good gin. (McGee insisted on Plymouth gin, but I wasn’t as particular.)

The resulting cocktail may not have attained the household-name status of Ian Fleming’s “shaken, not stirred” martini, but it makes for a marvelous gin drink.

I’ll try a Pink Gin soon with my Plymouth or Bombay Sapphire. I used to brag about hating gin because it tasted like Christmas trees, and only in recent years did I discover the good stuff. I should have had your father’s advice earlier in my life!

You intrigue me, sir! I’d heard of sloe gin, sloes being an ultra tart wild plum found in the UK, and thank you for the prompt to look it up. Seems the dark red juice of the sloe is mixed with vodka, gin, or neutral spirits to make a crimson liqueur. An old Esquire recipe for a Slow Gin Fizz adds lemon juice, sugar and club soda to make a lovely looking drink. A caveat: only imported sloe gin should be used, as apparently US brands are over sweetened and made with artificial colors and flavors. Guess Dad is right again…

My take on Pink Gin is more of a thirst quencher for sultry summers (who am I kidding? I’ll take one or three anytime): make a traditional Gin & Tonic, substituting a dash or two of bitters for the lime.

BTW, I’ve tried it with other bitters, but always come back to good old Angostura (which, ironically, has not contained any angostura bark, Cusparia trifoliata, since rumors of strychnine contamination circulated in the nineteenth century).

So true Gary, when it comes to bitters Angostura never fails to mix up the best of cocktails, though I must say when it comes to gin, I like you am very happy with a splash of tonic and a squirt of lime. Cheers!

Cheers to you Elizabeth as well, I can just imagine what it is like in England, a very dear friend of mine who grew up in England went back this weekend just for the celebration. I can’t wait to hear the stories once she is back stateside.

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